Junie's Online Thoughts
Saturday, January 11, 2003
Well, it finally happened. We were robbed. The bad news is that it not only happened once, but twice. (Get ready for a long story, folks.) It really began when we went to Tamale over Xmas. We had taken five million cedis out of the bank to pay for rent and have money for the trip. I counted out the rent money and put it in a plastic bag in our desk drawer in one of the bedrooms, then had an extra pack of 500,000 cedis. We brought the rest with us to Mole. When we got home, we counted the money and we were short the 500,000. To make it worse, all of the 500,000 cedis packets in the plastic bag for rent were short by a lot. I was confused, and we kept bouncing back and forth, wondering if we spent it somehow, if we lost it, if someone took it, if the bank cheated us, if I sorely miscounted our rent money. I knew we might have spent a little more than we thought, but I knew we werent THAT wrong. I blamed the bank. Jeremy, I think, thought I had spent it or we screwed up.
Weeks later, we made the bank recount every 500,000 cedi pack they gave (they all came out fine, of course.) Jeremy then had to pay his affiliation fee this past week at the University, and we remembered keeping a few hundreds in the money belt, as well as some other american cash. When he opened the money belt, there were no hundreds, and only two hundred dollars worth of fifties, a few twenties and a few ones. We spread it on the bed and counted it, mad that again, somehow we had fucked up with our money.
This week, on Monday, we had taken out 500,000 cedis to last us the week, and I wanted it in 10,000 notes because I didnt trust the bank. I had folded down each hundred cedis worth and put them in a pile in the desk drawer. Jeremy withdrew a bunch to pay his affiliation in cedis instead of dollars and had a full 500,000 cedi pack extra, which we also put in the drawer. I organized and cleaned it, putting all of our immunization cards, drivers licenses, visas, plane tix and money in neat piles in the drawer. I knew we had that full 500,000 pack, as well as 200,000 in tens to last us through Saturday and Sunday.
Last night, we locked up as usual (both the doors in the kitchen and patio) and we went out for Ethiopian food, then came home for a bit. We then joined the party on the roof until after midnight. I came home, Jeremy did a few hours later. We slept.
This morning, we heading out to have pancakes at NIna's house, then going to the abruni wa-wu, the second hand market, so we went to the drawer to get money. The packet for our traveler's insurance was laying on top of my desk, and when I opened the drawer, it was a MESS. Hmmm, I thought. That's weird. Jeremy must have been looking for something. The 500,000 packet was gone, and so was 100,000 in tens. Only 100,000 in tens were left. Jeremy? I asked, did you take anything out of here? I asked, still not getting it. No, and we fumed in confusion at what the hell kept happening. I then went to the money belt in a surge of worry. I emptied it....to find one fifty, one five and six ones......money we counted the day before was gone, gone, gone. We've been robbed!!!! We finally saw the lightbulbs. We were f-ing robbed in our own house. Suddenly everything made sense. I wasnt crazy. We didnt screw up when we got to Mole. Someone came in the house, took the full 500,000 pack, as well as a little out of each of the rent packets, and took our hundreds in american money. When we didnt say anything or freak out, they came back last night to take another 600,000 cedis and more cash. The desk was so messy today because someone went through it while we were gone.
We were SOOOO pissed. We immediately raced to Auntie C's and told her that we had been robbed. We explained the story, knowing full well, FINALLY, that someone took our money. They believed us, and knew who of the staff had been around and who didnt. They had never had a theft before and suspected this guy Cojo, who "they had been having problems with since Xmas," when our first robbery happened. (ALthough we didnt know it at the time.) They had tried to fire him by Wednesday, but his father had come to beg them to give him until Saturday. (Had he gone then, maybe we wouldnt have lost our money, but then again, we wouldnt have seen the light, either.) They told us to bring all our valuables to them, they would immediately change the locks and install a lock on the desk drawer. We left for Nina's, giving them our paperwork with almost no emergency cash left....and started the obsessing.
I know its not our fault. Ghana is relatively safe, especially compared to the United States or other foreign countries. I repeatedly heard stories about ghanians intervening in the aid of foreigners so they dont get robbed. But since our stay, I have also heard stories about pickpocketers, about people walking down the street with laptops and purses and people driving by to steal them, robberies and such, which seemed to have stopped around christmas. We didnt immediately assume it was a robbery because nothing like this had ever happened in the complex, or been witnessed by Jeremy or the people he knew. We have never been robbed in our lives before, and while were werent careless with our money, we werent overly cautious either. We didnt split up our funds, we didnt hide them throughout the house, we didnt ensure the desk drawer was locked or the bedroom doors....and Auntie C admitted that her spare key for our kitchen was mysteriously missing.....meaning he had access to our house.
So while I recognize that when people are victimized in any way, it is easy to feel guilty or stupid or like its our fault. I know this is normal and I shouldnt feel so hard on myself. But I cant help feel guilty or stupid or like its our fault...or at least drive myself crazy with the would-have-could-have-should-have constant rotation in my head.
Needlesstosay, we were really, really bummed today. Its been a hard day. We got home, got our bag back and proceeded to lock everything. Locked the desk, inspected the new kitchen lock, counted what little money we had left and did an inventory of our drawer. When we left for supper (to say goodbye to Regan), I locked every single mother lock in that house, all the latches, all the doors.....too little, too late, I know, but a damn good habit to have now until we leave. Its a strange sensation to have your home violated....to know that someone could have been watching your every move, inspecting the house casually while we were gone to stake the place, knowing to take just a bit and not alarm us....but dumb enough to come back and take so much.
Auntie c and Margaret agreed to not charge us rent for next month and seemed to know it was or could have been Cojo. I thought I saw him today, and didnt know if I was supposed to rush him screaming THIEF! I WANT MY MONEY!.....but decided to let them handle it. All said, we lost $600 american dollars, but if they grace us a month's rent, we have only lost $250. Through today, through my stomach ache and queasiness, through my anger and sadness, through my distrust and hate of strangers and thieves, I couldnt help but feel mildly relieved because it could have been much, much, MUCH worse. Had he, whoever the thief was, been a professional, he could have taken all of our money, both of the bags, with both passports, all photocopies of passports, both plane tickets, the traveler's check, our immunization records, our insurance, credit cards, Jeremy's laptop, our cds, film, cameras, clothes, books, everything of value. Luckily we didnt have all of our money in cash at our place. Luckily I didnt have my blank checks yet. Luckily we still have all of these other really important things, as well as a cushion of money here at the bank and at home in the bank, as well as our lives....had we walked in on a professional with a knife or gun......so in the grand scheme of things, we didnt lose THAT much, but it still really, really, really, really, really sucks.
We will spend another weekend barely making it until the bank opens on Monday, but at least we know that we did have a handle on our spending...we just didnt distrust enough here to take all those other precautions in our own house. That will change now....here in Ghana, back in Atlanta, when I travel again.....Ghana isnt a thieves paradise, but its not a non-real world either............and we, everyone who travels, regardless of where, should be cautious and little paranoid about their money. Use that money belt. Lock up the individual items. Use decoy purses. Hide money and other valuables in unusual places. Try to insure that if you lose something, like we did, that it doesnt screw you. $600 is a lot here....a full month and half's worth of living, but $6000 would have ended our trip. Losing our passports and credit cards would have screwed us. We couldnt have replaced Jeremy's computer without cutting two months off the trip. You know? So those at home, lock your doors tonight, as we lock our seventeen doors.....and say little prayers that our thief will get that karmic kick in the ass, that this will be our only experience with loss and robberies, that we wont have to write another blogger like this one. Thanks, y'all.
Friday, January 10, 2003
Ah, happy happy immigration. Went back today with copies of our flight itinerary and jeremy's letter of affiliation from the university. The guy at the desk was all grumpy because the letter from the university wasnt addressed to the director of immigration (jeremy was supposed to know that) and that we hadnt copied our actual plane tickets. He suggested we apply for residency status, but we had just heard the hassle the lady ahead of us had to go through to get that...not a chance. They can supposedly renew the visas for six months, at which time they "may or may not" renew it again. No matter, we will just plan a trip to Togo around that six month mark and get a two month renewal at the Ghana border when we come back. Skip this whole immigration thing. Anyway, we are going back Monday morning with what we think is the right paperwork and hopefully it will all be fine.
Last night we hung out on the roof with Ross, a Canadian hook-up guru, this IT guy who can get you anything you want. He's planning this huge computer/DVD/technology satellite set up on the roof and spent the day downloading Lord of the Rings TWo to play sometime soon on his projector. I was sooooo excited to hear that. Yeah! So we got a little bit loaded with him and the rest of the big house folks (Erik, Morten, Barbara, Conrad and Steven) and then crashed at home. STacey and Erin returned from Mali all hand and foot henna-ed, full of stories and advice for us when we go there. Im so happy to see them...they are fun to hang out with and we are all going to Ethiopian food tonight with them and Nina and Regan (the Mole gang re-united) before Regan flies back to Malawi. Should be very fun.
Its a super super hot day today. Ugh. Just doesnt get any easier....I ignore the sweat more than I did before, but that heat sure hurts even after nearly two months here........
Thursday, January 09, 2003
I forgot to mention a little tidbit. When Jeremy and I were walking home from the food court two nights ago, this guy stopped us. I am a security guard and I have seen you two walking down Oxford Street. I must tell you that you are very respectful to your sister and that is nice to see, he says to Jeremy. Jeremy smiles and replies, "She is a good wife." Wife? he askes incredulously. Well, it is very nice the way you walk together. So, Im thinking....what is he/we doing that prompts strangers to say this to us? We dont do anything special, most of the time we dont even hold hands because its too hot. Is he supposed to be pushing me in the sewars? Shoving me around and calling me names? I was amused and confused.....and I guess pleased that Jeremy walks nicely with me.
Still sick....Jeremy got his letter from school...will be going to immigration tomorrow. Whooo hoo!
Wednesday, January 08, 2003
I have a cold. That really, really bites. I know better, but I seem to think that its impossible to get a cold in this steamy tropical climate. Im wrong, of course, as I sneeze and blow my way through boxes of kleenex. Ug. I hate being sick. Blech.
Catch up from a few days ago....two nights ago, Erik decided to throw a pizza party, making the dough from scratch. It took way longer than expected, but the pizzas were tasty. Erik has a nasty habit of being fun and funny at the beginning of the night, then after his eighth 20 ouncer, he becomes beligerent and mean, threatening to kick people's asses and being obnoxious. This night was no exception, and Erik threw a tantrum because we waited to eat the first pizza until the second was cold, meaning it tasted like shit (which it didnt) so he pouted and refused to eat any of the food he had worked four hours to make. Instead he drank and drank, then kidnapped Ross's digital camera and erased all of the photos on it because Ross took one of him, then launched into his ass-kicking schpeal. It got old, and we left.
The next day Jeremy took the day off and we splurged. We were going to walk to immigration to see how we can renew our visas, then search for Abruni Wa-Wu, this second hand clothing store. Well, immigration seemed to worry Jeremy, which then worried me (mostly because they were SUPER rude and the form requires letters of support or reasons to stay in the country, which always makes us fear that they will be jerks and not renew our visas...which would be terrible.) Im sure it will be fine, and Jeremy is trying to get a letter from the University today. We still have some time to figure it out and hope for the best before using a last minute trip out of the country in hopes that we can get a new two month visa when we return into Ghana (its all very confusing and Im not explaining it very well...I will talk more about that later when we have more info.)
Instead of shopping, we went home so Jeremy could nap and I could do yoga. Went out for deep dish pizza, then a beer at Virus to watch tv. (Tennis....very good.) Then home, then bed.
Today Im taking it easy. My nose hurts and I cant stop blowing it. (Its that nasty watery stuff that just flows right out of your nostrils whether you're ready with a kleenex or not.) Hopefully it will pass quickly, as I am pumping in the vitamins. I may just go home and practice some French, or nap, or read....we will see. Thats all for today...not too exciting.
Monday, January 06, 2003
Yesterday we spent the day lazing about until around three, when we ventured to Labadi Beach. They were having some sort of party thing so charged double to get in....the vibe was weird....a bit like Mexico where you are constantly bombarded with vendors or people trying to get you to sit at their restaurant or people just chatting you up. I was more of a i-want-to-be-alone mood, so it kind of annoyed me. Later, we walked to the far end of the beach where this section ended and merged with a section reserved for La Palm hotel, another posh resort here. This was the sort of beach experience I was looking for---nearly empty, sand to sit on and watch the waves, peaceful and non-distracting. Watched the water for a while, bargained for taxis, cooked dinner and hung out. By now we were out of money....so we didnt do much.
I wanted to call my folks around suppertime in Wisconsin. Bought a phone card, woke up at 2:30 in the morning (it would be 7 pm there), walked to the phone booth down the block, only to find that my card or the phone didnt work. ARGH! By then, all the comm centers were long closed, and I had no money to take a taxi downtown to try another phone. (Didnt really want to do that alone in my pajamas anyway.) It took forever to get back to sleep....now I have to try at 1 pm my time (6 am theirs...) to catch my dad before he leaves for work. Next month we are getting a cell phone so folks from home can call us...........I will keep you posted. Sorry mom and dad.....I tried!
